White Cloud Mountain Minnow (Tanichthys albonubes)

Common Name:

White Cloud Mountain Minnow.

Other Name:

White Mountain Cloud Minnow, The White Cloud, The Poor Man's Neon, The Meteor Minnow.

Scientific Name:

Tanichthys albonubes.

Family:

Cyprinidae.

Distribution:

China and Vietnam, often within cool, clean, fast-flowing streams.

Size:

Approx 1.5 inches.

Diet:

Aquatic invertebrates and detritus. In the aquarium, this translates into small pelletized prepared foods with occasional supplementation of baby brine shrimp, Daphnia ssp. water fleas, and mosquito larvae.

Water Temperature:

42 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit (5-27 degrees Celsius).

Water Chemistry:

They generally prefer softer water, but have been bred enough that they may be acclimated to moderate to hard water.

pH:

6-7 is ideal, but they can be acclimated to water outside this range.

Life Span:

5-7 years.

Description:

These torpedo-shaped beauties deserve to be compared to the Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi), but not necessarily in a subordinate context as with one of their former common names. They have a lovely silvery grey backdrop upon which a yellowish-beige stripe (representing the lateral line) is placed. The caudal and dorsal fins, while shaped similarly to those of a goldfish, are beautifully coloured in the same creamy yellowish-beige (fading to the translucent half furthest from the body proper) and have an explosion of a bright crimson red splashed throughout their bases. The other fins, which are reminiscent of those found on our ubiquitous golden friend, are likewise translucent, but this translucency remains throughout their entirety.

Behaviour:

These are fast-swimming fish that love shoals and love being in the midst of lots of plants. In less than desirable water conditions, the bright colours that have given them the right to be compared to P. innesi will fade.

There may be a lot of displaying between the male contingent in a tank, and intraspecific aggression could result from the gender balance being tipped too heavily toward the males.

Breeding:

They could quite possibly be the rabbits of the fish world. It may be argued that the Convict Cichlid (Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus) breeds more readily and more prolifically, but T. albonubes belongs in the top two in those categories. In a well-planted tank with temperatures that do not exceed 75 (and, some authors suggest, with temperatures that do exceed 68 but stay under the formerly-mentioned benchmark), they may be tough to stop from breeding. They are not obligate oophages, so some of their fry will likely survive along side the adult contingent. Fry have even more beautiful colours than their elder counterparts and have distinctively blue-tinged eyes.

When they are ready to spawn, males will display to females and, if the female is receptive to their advances, the males will lead them to an aquatic thicket where the eggs will be deposited. The fry will hatch within two days and can be dealt with in one of two manners: the first being that they receive no special care, and some fry will survive and thrive while most do not, and the second being that they are actually raised by the keeper. In that case, the fry should receive liquid fry food for about a week and then microcapsules or Artemia ssp. brine shrimp soon after.

Sexing:

Like most Cyprinids, male White Clouds are thinner and have more intense coloration. They will often be the fish displaying to one another in a White Cloud species tank.

Minimum recommended tank size:

Some sources say 5 gallons, but I think 10 would be the bare minimum for this shoaling species. Five gallons may be sufficient if the tank is almost literally choked with plants as these help to increase the bio filtration capacity. Besides, White Clouds love living with lots of plants!

Tank levels:

Top-Mid.

Natural Conditions:

They live in cooler, clean, fast-flowing streams that are highly vegetated.

Miscellaneous:

There are no synonyms to T. albonubes as Eschmeyer (1998) determined that the 1939 re-description of the White Cloud was actually a description of another confamiliar fish who is quite distinct from the White Cloud.

There are many artificial morphs of the White Cloud, chief among them being the long-finned "Meteor Minnow". This morph was originally created in the 1950's, lost to the hobby, and has been resurrected in the last decade or so. To hear it from an older aquarist, though, the morph is a lot less pretty than it used to be. There are also Albino morphs and ones of a different color, though the original wild type White Cloud is sufficiently beautiful to warrant inclusion in a small tank within the home of any hobbyist.

Photo Credit:

Photo supplied courtesy and ^©Amy Janecek AKA Buddy.